A $300 million investment by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 will supercharge talent and product development across LTK’s creator, brand and consumer shopping experiences
LTK (formerly rewardStyle and LIKEtoKNOW.it), pioneer of the creator economy and the largest global influencer marketing platform, today announced a round of funding that values the Dallas-based company at $2 billion.
“Ten years ago, we began with a mission to make creators, like myself, as economically successful as possible,” said Amber Venz Box, Co-founder and President of LTK. “This investment further validates the current and future opportunities for creators around the world when they put their skills to use on the LTK platform.”
LTK has been profitable for many years with strong topline growth spurred by the demand for LTK’s creator-guided shopping experiences as consumers further adopted online shopping. In the last year, consumers purchased more than $3 billion in fashion, beauty, fitness, home and lifestyle products from LTK creators, including sales generated through LTK Creator Shops™, the LTK shopping platform, blogs and social media.
“We believe there is a paradigm shift in the way consumers shop, which has highlighted the tremendous role creators play in guiding the online retail experience,” said Lydia Jett, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “LTK has built a seamless shopping platform that now reaches millions of monthly shoppers in more than 100 countries. We are thrilled to be partnering with Amber Venz Box, Baxter Box and the team to support LTK’s long-standing advocacy of global creators as they continue to scale.”
The investment by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 will be used to expedite growth initiatives. The company plans to aggressively hire across the entire organization to dramatically accelerate growth of its three-sided technology platform with new products for creators, brands and shoppers and to scale its international presence.
“SoftBank Vision Fund 2 shares our vision and amplifies our ambition, and I am proud to welcome them to LTK as we build the future of the creator economy,” said Baxter Box, Co-founder and CEO of LTK.
Upon the closing of the transaction, Angel Du, Investment Director at SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join the company’s board of directors, which includes the founders, as well as directors from Maverick Ventures and Bonanza Capital.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as financial advisor and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal counsel to LTK.
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